Published: Wednesday, May 7, 2014 at 07:10 AM.

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Despite “a minor hiccup” at one Onslow County precinct, officials say primary elections went smoothly throughout the region.

The polls opened from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at 23 locations in Onslow County, where 17 percent of registered voters — 16,111 out of 94,982 — cast a ballot. Sixteen percent of the voters in Carteret County turned out at one of its 27. Voter turnout in Duplin County was 11 percent, and Jones County had 25 percent voter turnout.

Hardware issue

A hardware issue in the Bear Creek precinct Tuesday morning delayed some votes when the plug and play function of a computer printer initially “did not catch,” election director Rose Whitehurst said. To compensate, election workers manually recorded the results of the few who voted in Bear Creek during this time.

Despite “a minor hiccup” at one Onslow County precinct, officials say primary elections went smoothly throughout the region.

The polls opened from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at 23 locations in Onslow County, where 17 percent of registered voters — 16,111 out of 94,982 — cast a ballot. Sixteen percent of the voters in Carteret County turned out at one of its 27. Voter turnout in Duplin County was 11 percent, and Jones County had 25 percent voter turnout.

Hardware issue

A hardware issue in the Bear Creek precinct Tuesday morning delayed some votes when the plug and play function of a computer printer initially “did not catch,” election director Rose Whitehurst said. To compensate, election workers manually recorded the results of the few who voted in Bear Creek during this time.

“We didn’t have many who went through that way before it was fixed,” Whitehurst said. “It was just a minor hiccup, and the polling process started on time.”

Upsetting apple carts

Anne and Tom Crabtree of Swansboro stopped at the Rotary Civic Center to cast their ballots. Both are unaffiliated but said they were interested in the Republican ballot this election.

Tom Crabtree, without naming specific candidates, said they voted to “upset a few apple carts.” The Navy veteran said it’s important that people exercise their right to vote.

“It’s a matter of principle to vote,” he said. “I served 24 years in the Navy. We fought for that right.”

Voters in the United States, he said, can peacefully support the candidates or express their discontent.

“It’s the only country I know of where you can bloodlessly overthrow the government every four years,” he said.

Ballot confusion

Matthew Hayslip of Hubert, an unaffiliated voter, said he encountered a troubling situation Tuesday at the polls in his precinct: He was given a ballot with only the non-partisan N.C. Supreme Court and the Onslow County School Board races.

“I asked for the ballot for the sheriff primary race and was told since I’m unaffiliated, this was my ballot, the one handed to me,” Hayslip said. “I voted it and cast it. After seeing others had the same problem, I spoke with the deputy director of elections and she stated that was wrong, not being allowed to vote in the sheriff primary. She stated she was sorry and that there was nothing she could do about it.”

Onslow County Board of Elections Director Rose Whitehurst said unaffiliated voters must choose either a Democratic, Republican or Libertarian ballot. Those seeking to vote in the hotly contested race for sheriff had to choose the Republican ballot.

“Once unaffiliated people check in, our coworkers explain to them they can vote for sheriff, but only if they choose the Republican ballot,” Whitehurst said.

She said staff was working with voters to help them with any questions and that unaffiliated voters were not denied any specific ballot.

“Oh, heavens no,” she said, attributing any confusion to a voter’s misunderstanding of the process.

‘Pretty smooth’ in Carteret

In neighboring Carteret County, Board of Elections Director Lindy Robinson said election day saw no major problems as the votes came in across precincts.

Voters came in a steady flow rather than a big rush, said Robinson. As far as equipment and voting at the polls, everything went “pretty smoothly.”

The Board of Elections office in Beaufort was reported as staying busy as they referred voters to their correct precinct throughout the day.

“The office was used as an early voting site and there was confusion among some voters who thought they could vote there on election day as well.” Robinson said, “We had 150 to 200 people come here and we had to look up and send them to their assigned precinct,” she said.